CUSTOM CONSOLES GIVE CREATIVE FUNCTION TO SCOTTSDALE TMC

Scottsdale, Ariz. hosts numerous high-profile events throughout the year, including the renowned golf tournament, the Waste Management Open as well as the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Auction and the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show. The nearby city of Glendale will host the 2015 Super Bowl, which will be the third time the Phoenix area has hosted the NFL championship game.

For visitors, residents and local businesses, major events like these bring festivities, media attention and floods of people. For the Scottsdale Traffic Management Center (TMC), events such as these invite the potential for incredible traffic nightmares.

Managing traffic for a large metropolitan area comes with significant challenges, but when major worldwide events are thrown into the mix, even greater challenges naturally follow. In order to maintain efficient operations on a daily basis as well as during large-scale events, the Scottsdale TMC decided to build out an entirely new management center, complete with the most advanced technology and functional capabilities.

As the general contractor, integrator and installer for the project, CS Technologies worked with the Scottsdale TMC for several months determining precisely what features and technologies to include in the new center. Once work began, however, the team only had about 30 days to construct the management center space.

“Once we got started, we worked extremely fast,” said Marty Soulard ITS division manager at CS Technologies. “The City of Scottsdale hosts more outdoor events, spectator events and outdoor spectators than any other city in America. As we prepared for construction, the Waste Management Open was getting ready to happen, as well as the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show.”

Starting from scratch in an entirely new area, the CS Technologies team faced space and size constraints in addition to the challenging fast-track schedule. The room design included a video wall combined with a series of desk-mounted monitor systems. Comfortably utilizing the monitors without obstructing the video wall proved to be a significant challenge.

“TMC staff needed to see the bottom of the lowest monitor on the video wall and there were a lot of concerns that employees wouldn’t be able to see over the tops of the desk-mounted monitors and consequently partially block the view of the lower video wall,” Soulard said. “We needed furniture that could comfortably fit in the space without obstructing sight lines.”

In order to provide a solution, CS Technologies chose the Envision line of consoles from Minnesota-based Winsted Corporation. Envison consoles offered a modular design with multiple mounting positions for optimal sight lines and ergonomically correct viewing angles.

“The monitors were mounted low enough without obstructing the view of the video wall, and yet comfortable enough for operators to utilize on a regular basis,” Soulard said. “The consoles also fit nicely in the space, so the room didn't feel crowded.”

Along with the consoles, CS Technologies worked with Winsted to develop a conference table with monitor lifts and cable cubbies. Before even looking at the furniture, however, Soulard and his team had a few ideas of what they wanted in terms of design.

“We put together some rough sketches and designed what we thought the consoles should look like from an aerial perspective,” Soulard said. “We showed Winsted the drawings to communicate what we were trying to achieve and Winsted’s product line defined itself almost immediately based on what we were looking for.”

Throughout the entire process CS Technologies collaborated with both the Scottsdale TMC and Winsted to help ensure a functional workspace while keeping the project timeline on track. This collaboration brought unique solutions and positive end results.

“During the course of the project, the Scottsdale TMC gave us feedback and good ideas for productive features,” Soulard said. “And because they were able to test drive the systems on the workstations, we were able to collaborate and come up with exciting new features we could integrate into the system that we hadn’t even considered.”

One example of the creative, collaborative thinking resulted in a wire management system within the furniture. The legs of the furniture became wire-ways, enabling the team to maintain a clean, clutter-free work area. This was important because the workstations could be viewed from both the front and back of the consoles, and the Scottsdale TMC wanted to make sure the furniture looked presentable to both operators and visitors touring the facility.

“The wire management system was simple, yet effective, and there are two workstations spliced together by a common return,” Soulard said. “Both of these features are examples of thinking outside the box, identifying what needed to be done and coming up with a solution.”

Despite the short timeframe and space constraints, CS Technologies completed the job on time and with better-than-expected results. The City of Scottsdale can breathe just little easier facing upcoming events such as the Waste Management Open and the Super Bowl, knowing their city has traffic management under control with a sophisticated new center.

“It would be really easy to cast a bad shadow on your own city if you couldn’t handle traffic and parking well, especially during major events,” Soulard said. “Overall, the project went better than expected and the collaboration we had with the Scottsdale TMC and Winsted helped the entire project run smoothly.”